5 Tips To Maximize Your Kindle's Battery Life

Kindles are well known for their prolonged battery life, with Amazon boasting that the base model can last upwards of six weeks with a single charge. Anyone using a Kindle can't use it for much other than reading, so it does make sense they can hold a charge like that. If you're not actively using the Kindle every day, you might even get longer out of a charge. If you want to get even more juice out of your reading device, there are many ways to make it happen.

These tips apply to all models of Kindle, whether it's the base model, the Paperwhite, or the Oasis. Nobody wants their Kindle to die in the middle of reading a good book, so you'll want to do what you can to maximize your life. Luckily, none of the tips will take much time to implement, which means you'll be able to get back to reading quickly.

Some Kindle models don't have a built-in light, but that's tough to come across if you're buying a newer model. Even the latest base model comes with a lit screen, so you'll be able to tinker with some brightness settings. It may not come as much of a surprise that higher brightness means lower battery life. If you want to keep your battery lasting as long as it possibly can, then keeping that brightness lowered will be key.

This could mean it'll become difficult to read at night, so you'll want to adjust your brightness accordingly. If you're somebody who typically reads during the day, then lowering the brightness would be an excellent way to prolong the life of your battery. Even if you're just tweaking the brightness during times of the day when you don't need a lit screen, you'll notice a difference in battery life.

Getting your Kindle connected to the internet is important if you want to browse the shop and buy new eBooks. This means you'll need to get connected to your Wi-Fi at least once in the process, but you don't have to stay connected at all times. Amazon notes a good way of increasing your battery life is to disconnect from the internet during times you don't need it. This can simply be done by turning on Airplane Mode.

This means you can download a bunch of books at a time and then switch off your Wi-Fi when it's all done. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to squeeze out a bit more juice from your battery. It might be hard to quantify when we're already talking about weeks of battery life here, but every little bit counts. If you ever need to download something again, just flip on your Wi-Fi and go for it.

If you're downloading a large book or many of them at once, you'll want to keep your Kindle plugged in for the duration of the download. Taking it a step forward, Amazon suggests leaving your device plugged in for a little bit, even after the download has finished. The reason behind this is that despite the download being finished, the Kindle will index your books to give search capability. This takes up battery life, so you'll want to keep your Kindle plugged in to keep it topped off for when you're ready to start reading.

This could end up being a difference of a few percentage points of battery charge, but it's all worth it if you're trying to maximize your charge. You don't have to have your Kindle plugged in each time you download a book, but the best time to do so is when you're giving it a charge so you can knock out two birds with one stone.

This tip depends largely on how good your eyes are. If you want to limit the number of times you turn your page, and in the process of doing so using battery, then you can lower the size of your font. This will make it so more words get stuffed onto a single page, which will help you cut down on the number of pages you're flipping through. This will also result in less clicking on the screen for yourself, so it can be a win-win in that regard.

If you're struggling with a different or smaller font, you're always able to switch back. It'll come down to a bit of experimentation to see what works best for you. A Kindle is used for reading, so if you find yourself sacrificing the reading quality just to get a bit more battery life, you might want to consider going back to the default settings. 

Although it might seem obvious, you'll want to make sure you hit the power button on your Kindle to put it to sleep when you're done reading. The Kindle might have a long battery life, but even it will run into limitations if you leave it on at all hours of the day. There are cases you can get that will automatically put the device to sleep once it's covered up, so getting one of those could be beneficial if you're forgetful. The case will automatically wake up your Kindle once you flip it open as well, so it's quite convenient. 

If you don't use a case like this, you'll just need to manually hit the sleep button when you're done reading a book. If you're serious about prolonging your battery life, then this shouldn't be something you have any issues remembering.